Technology News

New Zealand has trumped Australia in the space race. American-New Zealand aerospace manufacturer Rocket Lab successfully reached orbit with the test flight of its second Electron orbital launch vehicle, ‘Still Testing’, on January 21. Electron lifted-off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand.

Chinese technology and media conglomerate Tencent Holdings Ltd have formally announced that they have invested almost $2 billion to acquire a 12% stake in disappearing messaging-application Snapchat. The news comes just days after Snapchat posted poor quarterly results leading to a share price drop by 16% to $12.67, a far cry from its $17 IPO in March.

Continental, Ericsson, Nissan, NTT DOCOMO, OKI and Qualcomm Technologies, announced plans to carry out their first Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) trials in Japan. The objective is to validate and demonstrate the benefits of C-V2X using direct communication technology defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in their Release 14 specifications.

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has entered the European market for the first time following its announcement that its devices are now retailing in Spain. It’s part of the company’s new overall global strategy that will see them attempt to penetrate new markets in the forthcoming months.

South Korean telecom provider SK Telecom announced that the company, along with Korea Transportation Safety Authority (KOTSA), successfully deployed 5G infrastructure in K-City, the country’s pilot city for self-driving. It is the world’s first 5G infrastructure-equipped test autonomous driving city.

At the 4th Ultra-Broadband Forum in Hangzhou, China, Ryan Ding, Executive Director and President of the Carrier Business Group of Huawei, reaffirmed the company's commitment to providing “quality Broadband”.

The Chinese government has announced that it will invest a staggering $2.1 billion into the development of a new industrial park for AI research in Beijing. Other global superpowers such as Russia, the United States and the UAE have already invested heavily in AI (artificial intelligence) which has been recognized as a key economic driver in the future.

WISeKey, a digital information security, authentication and identity management company based in Switzerland has announced that its Internet of Things blockchain technology is set to be deployed in a number of selected ‘smart cities’ in China.

A UK-based financial services firm has claimed that China has stolen a march on other countries, and will lead the global autonomous vehicle market, which is expected to be worth around $1 trillion by 2040. IHS MARKIT has suggested that China will spearhead the self-driving revolution and said that the country had already embarked upon a number of initiatives aimed at establishing itself as the major player in the emerging industry.

Chinese AI firm SenseTime and Qualcomm Technologies announced plans to collaborate on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for future mobile and IoT products. This collaboration will draw from the expertise of both companies in AI by leveraging SenseTime’s ML models and algorithms with Qualcomm Snapdragon platforms, which offer advanced computing capabilities for client based AI.